Americans gaze at Iraq today and wonder why it is that nearly 4,500
American troops had to die with another 32,226 wounded, many permanently with
loss of arms, legs, and minds for the Iraq as it exists today.
There are, of course, other costs. Wars do not come cheap, even
debacles like this one. The Iraq war cost the U.S. treasury over one trillion
dollars all of it borrowed from China, Russia, and other countries. Dead Iraqi
civilians number between 125,000 to over a million. No one really knows, not
even the Iraqi government. That, in itself, is a real tragedy. There are over
two million displaced Iraqi refugees. The Iraqi economy and infrastructure was
totally destroyed and what there is of a helpless Iraqi government and security
forces are allied with Iran, not exactly a friend of ours.
From beginning to end, from trumped up charges against Iraq to begin
the war to its ignominious end, leaving with our tail between our legs, the war
in Iraq represents one of worst debacles in American history. We lost the war,
badly. Iraq is now aligned with our bitter foe, Iran. Every one of our
objectives for going to war, not the phony ones given to the American public
and our Congress -- the real ones -- went unmet. In addition, due to our illegal
invasion of Iraq our country essentially became an aggressor nation and a
pariah in the world community. This must never, ever, happen again.
We now face Iraq today, and matters could not be worse. Anna Mulrine of
the Christian Science Monitor reports "Violence in Iraq from
July to October hit its highest level in two years, a discouraging sign one
year after the last US
military vehicles exited the country and prompts questions about whether
the situation on the ground in Iraq jeopardizes America's national security
interests." Deaths and injuries to civilians are rising. The government of
Nouri al-Maliki, which the U.S. helped to install, is in turmoil.
"The levels of violence there are still extremely high -- and lethal,"
says Nora Bensahel, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), who notes that
more people are dying in Iraq today than in Afghanistan,
where America's war is ongoing.
Ostensibly, Bensahel concludes, "It's clear that the [Iraqi] security
forces [are] strong enough to be able to hold together and maintain certain
levels of capabilities." Serious questions can be asked of that assessment to
the extent Bensahel may be deluding herself. That would appear to be so. From
July to October 2012, 854 civilians were killed and 1,640 were wounded. Is that success?
Of course, the Pentagon will never admit to an American defeat even in
the face of total reality. Subsequently, Navy Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a Pentagon
spokesman chimes in with this cherished thought. "The Iraqi security forces are
continuing to demonstrate themselves to be very capable in handling their
country's security -- He then adds demurely, "Obviously, today we no longer
have a real military footprint inside the country that would make us an
authority on the actual security situation there." In other words, to the
casual observer, Cmdr. Speaks has no idea what he is talking about. The same
casual observer is noting results, or lack thereof in terms of national
interest, not meaningless rhetoric.
Tongue in cheek Lt. Col. Mark Cheadle who was in Baghdad for four
months after the official end of the war offers this tidbit, which is a bit
closer to the truth of the matter. "I would have to say things have gone as
expected. I wouldn't say their progress is worse than expected."
Still, "it's not what we would necessarily consider a success from a US
or traditional Western point of view," adds Cheadle, who served as a strategic
analyst and adviser for Iraqi key leader engagements. Now that, friends, is
honesty, rarely seen these days.
Mulrine also states, "But there is also a sense throughout the country
that a "Damocles sword' hangs over Iraq in the form of the Syrian conflict to
the west and disputes over oil wealth to the north." Michael
Rubin adds, "There's a real fear that the Syrian civil war is going to
blow back into Iraq, and people worry about all of these unresolved issues with
the Kurds."
Unfortunately, to make matters worse as if that were possible, that
threat is very real and very disquieting. Semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan and
the central Iraqi government are on a collision course as the Kurds
increasingly side with the Syrian opposition and Baghdad stands by the Assad
regime.
Correspondent Mohammed
A. Salih explains it in this way. "The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq and the
federal government in Baghdad have not seen eye to eye for years, and the gap
between the two is now widening, particularly when it comes to foreign policy.
That's been put in stark relief by the ongoing civil war in Syria,
which has shifted the fortunes of Iraq's Kurds. A decade ago, Iraq was a
Sunni Arab-dominated dictatorship that shared many problems with the Sunni
Turks to the north. Both countries had restive ethnic-Kurdish separatist
movements and uneasy relations with their Shiite and Persian neighbor, Iran. Today,
Iraq has a Shiite-dominated government that is close to Tehran,
which is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria's civil
war. Turkey, still eager to prevent Kurdish separatist sentiments within its
borders, now sees the Iraqi Kurds as a potential ally in opposition to the interests
of Iran, Baghdad and Damascus."
Iraq is lost to us. There is not even the remotest
possibility that Baghdad will become a U.S. ally, although that was the
objective of those who initiated the invasion of that country. Far worse Iraq
is also lost to the community of nations. That the sectarian tensions between
the Shi'a, Sunni, and Kurds will be ameliorated any time soon is also
impossible. If it ever does happen, it will not be during my lifetime.
What does that teach us as Americans? It teaches us
this. If we ever go to war again, we better know what we are doing, no
guessing. Also, we must know of our own limitations and the full capability of
the enemy, not just what we think of our own superiority emboldened by cheers
for the vaunted U.S. soldier during American games and parades. If we do not do
that, too many of our "hero" troops will get dead in an operation labeled
mission failure. Want proof of that reasoning, look at Iraq today.
There are lessons to be learned from abject failure. We learn them or our civilization as we know it will die.
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